


There Must Be an Angel With a Smile on Her Face

by Roundworm



Series: Pure unadulterated fluff [2]
Category: 1917 (Movie 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Established Relationship, Kissing, M/M, Physical Disability, Post-Canon, Self-Indulgent, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, by everyone I mean specifically tom, i fixed it for you mr. mendes, just so much goddamn kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23820046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roundworm/pseuds/Roundworm
Summary: It had been two years since the war, and Will had taken to visiting Tom Blake’s family nearly once a week. He felt incredibly grateful to Joe and Mrs. Blake for welcoming him so warmly into the family—although he’s sure the attitude would change if his true relationship with Tom happened to get out.Normally, Will followed a strict schedule for his own sake: every Thursday would be Blake Day. Today, however, was a Tuesday, and he went off schedule for very good reason.
Relationships: Tom Blake/William Schofield
Series: Pure unadulterated fluff [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716283
Comments: 7
Kudos: 121





	There Must Be an Angel With a Smile on Her Face

**Author's Note:**

> 🎶when she thought up that I should be with you🎶
> 
> Good lyrics need to stop being so long bro
> 
> Anyway!! This is an epilogue of sorts to hands like that shouldn’t carry rifles 👍 I’ve been writing too many.... other things, so I needed some straight up fluff

“Oh, William! What a pleasant surprise!”

It had been two years since the war, and Will had taken to visiting Tom Blake’s family nearly once a week. He felt incredibly grateful to Joe and Mrs. Blake for welcoming him so warmly into the family—although he’s sure the attitude would change if his true relationship with Tom happened to get out. 

Normally, Will followed a strict schedule for his own sake: every Thursday would be Blake Day. Today, however, was a Tuesday, and he went off schedule for very good reason.

“I’m afraid Tom isn’t up yet, the lazy boy.” Mrs. Blake happily let Will into the house. “Ooh, what have you there?”

That reason was, of course, that Will had a present for Tom, and he knew that the boy would be stationed at the front door all Thursday morning, fully awake and alert. Will smiled at the woman and showed her the gift: a new cane, one that had far more emotional value than the one that Tom had been given by his doctor. 

As Mrs. Blake fawned, Tom’s older brother emerged from deeper in the house, most likely intrigued by the sudden second voice. 

“Morning, Will,” Joe’s voice was tinged with confusion. “Good to see you.” 

“He’s brought a gift for Tommy!” Mrs. Blake chirped. “It’s beautiful William, I’m sure he’ll love it.”

Joe meandered into the kitchen with a quiet chuckle. “Yeah, if he was awake to see it. It’s already ten o’clock by now.” He drummed his fingers on the counter. “He’ll miss Tuesday brunch by this point.”  
Will looked up towards Tom’s closed bedroom door.

“I’ll get him up,” He sighed fondly. “He’s quite a light sleeper.”

“Ah, and he’s a stubborn one as well.” Mrs. Blake tutted, shaking her head. “You’re more than welcome to try, dear.” 

Will gingerly set the gift down on a chair in the dining room and made his way towards Tom’s room. Behind him, it sounded as though Joe was incredibly confident about something. 

Despite what he’d been sent to do, Will couldn’t find it in himself to shut the door loudly behind him, or to do anything but tiptoe across the floor. Something in him stalled at the sight of Tom peacefully sleeping—it physically hurt to wake him up knowing how little sleep he got on the frontlines.

He shook his head. They weren’t at war anymore, dammit, Tom had all night to sleep now. 

Even still, he was careful when he made his way to Tom’s bed, resting his hands on the mattress and leaning forward to kiss him on the cheek.

“Good morning, my lovely boy,” Will whispered. Then, he straightened up a bit and spoke louder, this time actually intending to wake him. “Up you get.”

Tom made a grumbly little noise of protest and reluctantly opened his eyes a crack, immediately softening when he spotted who’d woken him up. Both eyes were fully open now as he reached up towards Will, tugging him back down for a proper kiss. 

“Hmm… good morning…” 

Will’s heart stuttered to a stop at the boy’s quiet voice, still heavy with sleep. He couldn’t help but to kiss him again—just once more, he had to, just to see Tom’s groggy smile grow progressively wider. 

Okay, maybe a couple more. Maybe enough for Tom to start laughing and push his face away.

“I didn’t know you were visiting today, I would’ve been up earlier if I had.” He slowly sat up in bed, stretching his back on the way. Will didn’t miss the way he winced, how he placed a hand delicately over his stomach. It took everything in his power to not gather Tom up in his arms and coddle him (Will knew he hated that—he hated feeling weak).

Will smiled instead. “I wanted it to be a surprise.” He offered a hand to help Tom up, out of reflex. Luckily, the boy seemed too tired to complain, considering he accepted it. “I’ve got a gift for you.”

Tom visibly brightened up and let go of his hand, most likely intending to leave his bedroom judging by the way he turned. “A gift?” 

“Tom.” Will cleared his throat and tilted his head towards the medical cane leaning against the wall closest to his bed. His doctor clearly stated that he was required to use it for the rest of the month at least. It was likely, however, that his next checkup would result in Tom having to use it far longer… he didn’t seem to be getting steadier.

Without looking back at Will, Tom’s shoulders deflated and he begrudgingly reached over to snatch it up from the wall. Will sighed softly, moving to circle his arms around Tom from behind and press another kiss to his cheek.

“It’s not much longer now.” He murmured in the younger man’s ear. “I know you don’t like it, but it’s not much longer, alright?”

Tom looked down and away, not saying a word. It took longer than Will would’ve liked to coax him back into a good mood—which was to say that Will wished Tom would never feel a single negative emotion a day in his life, so any amount of time spent cheering him up was too much for his liking—but he did get a smile out of the boy eventually, after plenty more kisses.

“Right, come on then,” Will patted Tom’s hip, speaking with a tone of finality. “Get changed you little sluggard, Joe told me that I had five minutes to wake you up before he kicked you out of bed himself.” 

He stepped away when Tom groaned in frustration, stifling a laugh into his fist. Will managed to catch some incoherent grumblings about his brother before he slipped out of the bedroom. 

“Did you get ‘im?” Joe asked from the kitchen, leaning forward against the counter on his forearms. Mrs. Blake busied herself with something that Will could not see from where he stood. 

Will cracked a little smile. “I did. Eventually.” 

Joe slapped his hand down on the counter triumphantly. “I told you he could, mum. Tom’s a puppy he is, I told you he’d leap out of bed the second he saw it was Schofield.” 

Flustering far more than any normal man should, he tried to defend himself, but was drowned out by Mrs. Blake’s mirthful laughter.

“He does seem to perk up when William is around,” She smiled fondly to herself. “I’m glad that you’re friends, dear. Tommy needs a presence like that in his life, I think. Especially now.” 

A helping hand, a friend, yes; Will could work with that. Wriggling out of Joe’s comment, though? No chance. Not for the first time, he thanked God for Mrs. Blake.

“Ah… well…” Will strode across the length of the room, picking up his gift on the way, and sat down on a chair in the living room. “I can’t take all the credit, you both have done far more for him.” 

In fact, he couldn’t take any of the credit. Tom was a far stronger man than he was, he was the strongest man Will had ever met, and his support system was already solid. His family was delightful and loving, he made friends everywhere he went, and Will was… well, he was the man that Tom had single-handedly hauled out of a pile of rocks. The man that couldn’t prevent the pain that Tom went through. That didn’t protect him.

Tom threw open his bedroom door before Will could spiral too much further and tottered out, still awkward using that cane he hated so much. 

“It’s about time,” Joe quipped, straddling the fine line between mocking and sincere that only siblings could achieve. “I was beginning to think you’d sleep through brunch. We were about to leave without you.”  
Tom sneered and waved his cane at his brother, like an old man trying to chase little kids off his lawn.

“You would never.” He spoke like it was a threat. Just as quickly as he’d begun his intimidation tactic, however, Tom perked up when his eyes landed on Will (his mother was… not wrong, as it turned out). The way he looked… it was as if Tom hadn’t expected Will to still be there. “You said you had a gift for me, yeah?” 

Will blinked his thoughts away before nodding, suddenly nervous. Well, to be fair, he was a bit nervous about it the whole time, but now it all felt a bit more real. It was far too late to turn back now, though. 

“Oh, yes, uh…” Will got to his feet and hesitated just a second more before handing over the new cane. The suddenly simple, boring walking stick, dark oak and polished. He wished that he could have thought of something a bit more extravagant now, something that was far more… Thomas Blake, but he knew next to nothing about things like that. He deferred instead to the weathered old man that lived in the flat across from his own, who spent all day carving and whittling. ‘It’s sturdy’ he’d said confidently, ‘if your friend knows anything, he’ll like it’.

Tom hadn’t looked away from it since Will had offered it to him. He couldn’t tell if that was a good sign or a bad one.

“I, well… of course I know that you aren’t... keen on using yours, but,” Will’s gaze sharply flicked to the side, where he could see Joe’s encouraging thumbs up. “I reckoned you’d like this better, since…” 

‘Since it’s from me’.

Finally, finally, Tom took the gift from his hands and, like a great burden had been lifted from him, immediately dropped the one that he’d been given by his doctor. Wordlessly, he wrapped his arms around Will’s middle and buried his face into his shoulder.

Will released the breath that he didn’t know he was holding. 

“I take it you like your gift, then?” Half joking and half serious, Will spoke quietly next to his ear. Tom nodded as best he could, hugging him tighter.

“Should be the last time he moans about following doctors’ orders.” Joe commented to Mrs. Blake, distantly reminding Will that they were, in fact, still there. He savored another moment or two of Tom’s embrace before carefully peeling the boy off of him to the tune of his mother’s laughter.

“Alright boys,” Mrs. Blake clapped her hands once and untied her apron. “Get your things, we’ll be late for brunch if we don’t get a move on. William, you’re coming too.”

“And it’s your turn to pay this time, Tom.” Joe trailed behind their mother with a wicked grin, but it lost its sharp edges somewhere between the kitchen and the front door. Will, having no room to argue, made to grab his coat and follow the two outside after they’d shut the door behind them (weirdly). He stopped at the hand clutching at his arm, though.

As soon as he turned around to face the culprit, Tom cradled his face between his hands and kissed him sweetly. 

“Thank you Will,” Tom nuzzled their noses together when he eventually had the strength to separate. “I love it. I love you.”

Will was caught between the terrifying knowledge that Tom’s brother and mother were only a few feet away just behind a door, and an overwhelming feeling of affection. All he could do was croak out a weak “I love you too”. 

Tom’s eyes sparkled so brilliantly; absolutely nothing he’d seen before could compare. How could this ethereal being look at someone like him and find him worthy of his pure love, still untainted by the horrors of the world, by the war that had nearly taken his life?

Joe knocked on the front door of his own house instead of immediately opening it, and Will didn’t have time enough to wonder why before they shot away from each other like they were same-sided magnets.

“Coming!”

________________________

They did, in fact, make it to the little restaurant just outside of town in time for brunch, even in spite of the… hold up. Tom appeared infinitely more cheerful in public now, no longer huddling into himself, hiding from nonexistent stares of judgement for being unable to walk by himself. 

Will was far more than happy to sit back and sip his tea while the Blakes chattered away with each other. Perhaps he would occasionally throw out a question and let them pounce on it like hungry wolves. That was never how it went with this family, but he liked to entertain himself with the thought.

Today, the family seemed even more eager to include Will in their discussions. 

“You didn’t make that yourself, did you?” Joe nodded in the vague direction of Tom’s gift. Quickly, Will shook his head.

“Oh no, I couldn’t.” But goddamn did he try. He rubbed his palms together under the table, still feeling the nicks and cuts that had long since healed from his pathetic attempts. “I have a, uh, neighbor across the way who makes them. Wouldn’t let me pay as long as I came around and sat with him for a while.”  
Will smiled to himself then, knowingly. “Lucky that I have experience with listening to endless stories.” 

“Talking of endless stories,” Tom shot him a heatless glare out of the corner of his eye. “Did I ever tell you about the time…” 

Will leaned back in his chair, glad for an excuse to both stop talking and to stare at Tom. Admittedly, he zoned out a bit somewhere in the middle of the story—it wasn’t entirely unheard of, but he usually stayed tuned in. He was too busy thinking. Tom had said “I love you” to him earlier, and Will didn’t even fully comprehend it; he just relied on what his emotions told him. Now that was practically unheard of.

Wait. Oh my fucking God. 

Tom had said “I love you”. 

He nearly dumped his cup of hot tea on his lap at the abrupt realization and rushed to set it down on the table. The phrase kept bouncing around in his skull, free to move wherever it pleased with his brain now out of the picture. 

He was suddenly aware of fingers snapping in front of his face. 

Will startled back, nearly tipping over in the chair, and his vision cleared enough to fully observe the table either politely hiding their chuckles behind their hands (Joe and Mrs. Blake) or openly laughing at him (Tom. Of course).

“You weren’t even listening,” Tom’s grin went crooked. “Are you alright?”

Will’s face was still completely blank for a few moments before he snapped back to normal: a slightly less blank face. “Y-yes, sorry, uh… were you telling the river story?” 

“William Schofield, you are poking the bear.” Joe spoke warningly. “If you’re talking about the story I think you’re talking about, you will never be welcome in our house again.”

His heart dropped down to his knees.

“Have you any idea how many times Tom has told that story?” Oh God, he was joking, thank God. “And every retelling is more outlandish than the last.” 

“I did almost drown! I could’ve!” Tom insisted over Joe’s complaints. Joe leaned forward then, the dangerous glint of ‘I will now embarrass my brother’ in his eyes. “Wait—”

“You could’ve drowned, huh? Well, it sure is a good thing that big strong Lance Corporal William Schofield was around to help you out.” 

“I never said that!!” 

“What were your exact words again?” Joe pretended to think, tapping his fingers on his chin. “Hmmm… ah yes, ‘I—“

Tom very obviously kicked Joe’s shin underneath the table. The older man grit his teeth through the pain—his determination to mortify his younger brother was apparently stronger.

“I still have the letters,” Joe hissed, earning another kick to his other shin. “I’ll show you them after brunch, Will.” 

Tom raised his cane threateningly. “If you even dare show him a single one of those letters, I will clobber you. Don’t think I won’t.”

Will was completely dumbfounded by the dynamic—he still wasn’t used to it—but he managed to inform Joe that that cane was, “Solid oak. Wouldn’t feel too good.”

“Solid oak, this is!” Tom echoed. 

________________________

Will didn’t manage to sneak around Tom to actually read those letters, but Joe told him with a stage whisper and an over exaggerated wink that they would always be there.

He hadn’t intended to stay much longer than he usually did, and certainly didn’t mean to stay after dark. Yet, when he’d glanced away from his card game to look out the window, the moon was just beginning to peek out over the horizon. Whenever he tried to leave though, Tom always found an excuse to keep him around.

Mrs. Blake had gone off to bed at a tidy nine o’clock and Joe had bid them goodnight a few minutes before midnight. If Will didn’t leave now, he’d miss the last train back to the city. 

In the darkened living room devoid of all other life, Tom held Will’s hand in his own.

“I’m sorry,” He mumbled. “I’ve kept you, haven’t I?” Will gently freed his hand from Tom’s grip, only to wrap it around his shoulders and pull him closer. He tucked the boy under his chin.

“It’s alright, I don’t mind.” Will hummed, finding Tom’s other hand in the dark. “I’d’ve liked to stay anyway.” 

They sat in silence for a while then. They hardly ever got the chance to, never in such blissful privacy, where Will was free to hold and kiss Tom whenever he pleased. In the dark, it was quite easy to imagine a life where every day was just like this moment, except he could look at Tom as well. In the light, the daytime, without having to wait for his eyes to adjust.

He felt Tom fidget with the hem of his shirt, apparently beginning to grow weary of the silence. It never took too long.

Will hid a yawn in his fist. “Am I taking the couch, then?” He didn’t have to see Tom to know he was getting the most incredulous look. 

“Absolutely not. If you sleep on the couch you’ll be stiff as all hell in the morning.” Tom extracted himself from Will’s arms and reached out to where he’d leaned his cane on said couch. “Come on, it's way more comfortable in my room.”

He grinned, offering his hand for Will to take. He did, of course, because he always would, and stood up. This time though, thankfully, Tom didn’t take his hand back. “It’s got a proper mattress and everything.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is dedicated to my fwiend Alice and everyone else in the 2nd Devon’s server as well🥺🥺🥺 I hope y’all like it


End file.
